Monday, July 3, 2017

Political Murders Will Continue in Russia Because They are Useful to Putin, Feygin Says

Paul
Goble

Staunton, July 2 – New political
murders in Russia are likely because Vladimir Putin needs them as part of its
effort to whip up hysteria against his opponents and thus protect his own
power, lawyer Mark Feygin says, even though there are many elements in the
regime who are opposed to such measures also out of a concern for
self-preservation.

But
in the current situation of dictatorship and the absence of democracy, the
lawyer continues, “Putin has the last word, not the FSB. In this system, Putin
himself personifies the FSB, the North Caucasus and the entire system as a
whole. He is the goal and means of this system and doesn’t need to ask the FSB
what its officers think.”

Putin
“has his own strategic plan for preserving himself in power, and Kadyrov serves
this plan as a most important detail. So why should Putin himself destroy this machine?”
He will continue to use it, even if it sometimes causes troubles for him as it has
following the murder of Boris Nemtsov.

“I
am even convinced,” Feygin says, “that all this isn’t useful for Putin because
for Putin Nemtsov wasn’t dangerous. He didn’t represent any decisive threat to
the system … and so Putin didn’t need to remove him. To overcome the
consequences of this murder will be much more complicated that ignoring the
existence of people like Nemtsov.”

But
there is an explanation for why this process will go on for some time, an explanation
that reflects the profound differences between Ukraine with its investigation
of the Gongadze murder and Russia with that of Nemtsov. “In Ukraine, what is
needed to investigate is political will because there is democracy there,
admittedly weak.”

“In
Russia,” however, “there is no democracy, we are held back by an authoritarian
and quite harsh system. In this is the difference between the two countries.
The political character of both murders is obvious, but he consequences can be
different because of the different opportunities of the system to answer a question
that is of interest to society.”

Because
of the nature of the Putin system in Russia, Feygin continues, he says that he
has “no doubts” that there will be more political murders.”The head of the regime still benefits from
them and civil society and democratic institutions remain respectively
amorphous and weak.Consequently, such
murders will be part of the regime’s plans to defend itself.

Such
murders will take place “not frequently.” But they will continue “because, on
the one hand, the hysteria which is supported by Kremlin propaganda divides
society into the loyal and disloyal, ‘the fifth column’ and the majority, and
therefore these attitudes always will be inspired from above and generate
desire to solve all these problems at a stroke by killing someone. As they say,
no person, no problem.”

And
on the other, they will continue because the Kremlin’s political opponents “have
no opportunities for response. For them, the non-use of force is a more important
principle than power itself … and therefore selective political murders will
take place” and the regime will do what it has to both to carry them out and
cover up its role in them.